Microwave oven having a toaster

ABSTRACT

Disclosed is a microwave oven having a toaster, in which slices of bread can be baked. The microwave oven has a heating chamber for heating food therein; an instrument compartment containing electric components for generating microwave oven supplied to the heating chamber; a toaster casing disposed in front of the instrument compartment with its front open; a toaster door for opening and closing the open front of the toaster casing; and at least a heater disposed in the toaster casing so as to heat bread. In the microwave oven, the toaster section is arranged in front of the instrument compartment, so that the space in the microwave oven is most effectively utilized.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a microwave oven, and more particularlyto a microwave oven having a toaster, in which slices of bread can bebaked by means of a heater, so as to enlarge the entire utility of themicrowave oven.

2. Description of the Prior Art

In general, a microwave oven is an apparatus for heating an object bymeans of microwave. Referring to FIG. 1, which shows a construction of ageneral microwave oven, a heating chamber 2, in which microwave issupplied and an object to be heated by means of the microwave is put, isarranged in a cavity assembly 1, and the heating chamber 2 is opened andclosed by a door 4, in the general microwave oven.

Further, at one side of the heating chamber 2 of the cavity assembly 1,which is the right side of the drawing, is arranged an instrumentcompartment 10, which contains various electric equipments forgenerating microwave and is covered by an outer casing 6. In theinstrument compartment 10, installed are various components including amagnetron 12 for generating microwave, a high-voltage transformer 14 forapplying high voltage to the magnetron 12, a blower fan 16 for coolingthe electric components and forming an air-flow passing through theheating chamber 2, and the like.

Since the general microwave oven as described above utilizes themicrowave in heating an object, it is improper for the microwave oven toperform as a toaster for baking bread, in consideration of the heatingcharacteristic of the microwave. It is naturally preferred that themicrowave oven, which is an apparatus for heating food, has a functioncapable of heating various kinds of food in various forms, so as toincrease the usability of the microwave oven. It is more preferred thatthe microwave oven has, for example, a toaster function capable ofbaking bread.

In order to meet the above requirement, disclosed has been a microwaveoven having a toaster function by a Japanese Patent Laid-OpenPublication No. 1991-271630. In the disclosed Japanese microwave oven, atoaster capable of baking bread put therein is arranged at one upperside of an outer casing of the microwave oven.

However, in order to insert slices of bread, which are to be baked inthe microwave oven, into the microwave oven through an upper surface ofthe microwave oven as does in the above Japanese microwave oven, aseparate space capable of containing slices of bread has to be arrangedbetween the cavity assembly 1 and the outer casing 6. In result, themicrowave oven is disadvantageous in that it necessarily has arelatively large dimension. Further, it goes without saying that theconstruction of the conventional microwave oven does not conform to thecurrent trend requiring electronic appliances, each of which is compactand has various functions.

In consideration of the conventional technology as described above, itis preferred that a microwave oven has an additional toaster functioncapable of baking slices of bread while it conforms to the current trendof minification in the dimensions of electronic appliances.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, the present invention has been made to solve theabove-mentioned problems occurring in the prior art, and an object ofthe present invention is to provide a microwave oven having a functionof a toaster, which enables a user to bake bread even by means of themicrowave oven.

It is another object of the present invention is to provide a microwaveoven, which has an additional toaster function by means of heaters whilesufficiently securing a heating chamber utilizing microwave, withoutincreasing the entire dimension of the microwave oven, thereby having acompact appearance together with various functions.

In order to accomplish this object, there is provided a microwave ovenhaving a toaster, the microwave oven comprising: a heating chamber, inwhich food is heated; an instrument compartment disposed at one side ofthe heating chamber, the instrument compartment containing electriccomponents for generating microwave oven supplied to the heatingchamber; a toaster casing disposed in front of the instrumentcompartment, the toaster having input ports formed at a front surface ofthe toaster; and a toaster section disposed in the toaster casing, thetoaster section having at least a heater for heating bread.

According to the present invention as described above, since the toastersection is disposed in front of the instrument compartment, a separatespace is not required, so that the microwave oven can have a toasterfunction without increasing the entire volume thereof. Further,anticipated is an additional advantage in the construction thereof, inthat the electric power required by the toaster section can be easilysupplied from the instrument compartment.

Further, the toaster door is disposed in such a manner that the toasterdoor can be opened and closed while pivoting downward and upward about ahinge shaft disposed at a lower end of the toaster door.

Also, the microwave oven may further comprise: a tray for seating breadthereon, the tray being disposed at an inner bottom portion of thetoaster casing; and at least a cooperating lever for connecting the traywith a middle portion of a side of the toaster door, so that the tray isdrawn forward by an opening operation of the toaster door.

It is preferred that the cooperating lever has a rear end connected to aspring, which is fixed to a rear wall of the toaster casing, so that thecooperating lever is elastically supported backward.

More preferably, the tray comprises sliding protuberances protrudinglaterally outward from both sides of the tray, the sliding protuberancesbeing inserted in guide slots formed at side surfaces of the toastercasing, so as to guide forward and backward movements of the tray.

Also, the microwave oven may further comprise a flour collector disposedat a lowest portion of the casing, the flour collector having a shape ofa drawer, which is horizontally inserted into and drawn out of thetoaster casing.

The heater disposed in the toaster casing may comprise a core plate, onwhich heat wires are wound, and outer plates, which are disposed as tosurround both side surfaces of the core plate. Also, the heater furthercomprises a plurality of guides disposed at outer portions of theheater, which are arranged in such a manner as to maintain the heater ina location spaced with a predetermined distance from the bread.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other objects, features and advantages of the presentinvention will be more apparent from the following detailed descriptiontaken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of a general microwave oven, forshowing an internal construction thereof;

FIG. 2 is a front view of a microwave oven according to the presentinvention, in which a toaster door is closed;

FIG. 3 is a front view of the microwave oven according to the presentinvention, in which the toaster door is opened;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged perspective view of a toaster section employed inthe microwave oven according to the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a side sectional view of the microwave oven according to thepresent invention, in which the toaster door is closed;

FIG. 6 is a side sectional view of the microwave oven according to thepresent invention, in which the toaster door is opened;

FIG. 7 is an exploded perspective view of the toaster section employedin the microwave oven according to the present invention; and

FIG. 8 is a perspective view of a heater employed in the microwave ovenaccording to the present invention, together with its explodedperspective view.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Hereinafter, a preferred embodiment of the present invention will bedescribed with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Referring to FIGS. 2 to 4, a toaster section 100, in which bread can bebaked, is disposed in front of an instrument compartment 200 in amicrowave oven 110 according to the present invention.

The present invention prevents the dimension of the entire microwaveoven from being increased and the volume of a heating chamber from beingreduced, since the toaster section 100 is installed in front of theinstrument compartment 200 of the microwave oven 110 as shown in FIGS. 5and 6.

Further, by locating the toaster section 100 in front of the instrumentcompartment 200, there is provided an advantage in an aspect of electricwiring. As will be described later, since a heater for heating bread canbe installed in front of the instrument compartment 200, electric powersupplied to the instrument compartment 200 can be more simply connectedto the heater.

Hereinafter, a more detailed description about the construction of thetoaster section 100 will be given with reference to FIGS. 4 to 6. Asshown, the toaster section 100 according to the present invention isdisposed in front of the instrument compartment 200, which containsvarious electric components for generating microwave as shown in FIG. 5,such as a magnetron 210 for generating microwave, a high-voltagetransformer 212 and a high-voltage capacitor (not shown) for applyinghigh-voltage to the magnetron, and a blower fan 214 for cooling theelectric components. The instrument compartment 200 is an internalsection of the microwave oven, which has a relatively much space to beutilized. Therefore, by locating the toaster section 100 in front of theinstrument compartment 200, a spare space in the instrument compartment200 can be sufficiently utilized, so that the microwave oven can beprovided with the function of the toaster without increasing the volumeof the microwave oven.

Further, according to the present invention, the toaster section 100 hasopenings formed at a front surface of the microwave oven. Further, it ispreferred that the toaster section 100 can be opened and closed by atoaster door 130. As shown, the toaster section 100 is located under acontrol panel 114 having a plurality of operation buttons formedthereon, which is disposed at the front surface of the microwave oven110.

As shown in FIG. 4, the toaster section 100 includes a casing 102 havinga predetermined space formed inside of the instrument compartment 200,and the toaster door 130 disposed in front of the casing 102 to open andclose the casing 102. Inside of the casing 102 is disposed a heater forheating bread, which will be described later. Further, a pair of inputports 104 a and 104 b, through which two slices of bread can beinserted, are formed at the front surface of the casing 102. In thepresent embodiment as shown, the input ports 104 are formed at a frontplate 103 and respectively have a dimension, which enables a slice ofbread to be inserted with standing upright in an lengthwise direction.

Moreover, the toaster door 130 opens and closes the input ports 104,thereby preventing heat from leaking when slices of bread are beingheated therein while preventing alien material from coming into thetoaster section 100 from the exterior when the toaster section 100 isnot used.

The toaster door 130 in the present embodiment as shown, is a pull-downtype door, which is opened downward from above about the lower endthereof. As shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, the toaster door 130 is openeddownward from above about a hinge shaft Ha, which extends through bothends of the lower end of the toaster door 130. Further, accompanied withthe opening and closing operation of the toaster door 130, the tray 120is drawn out of and inserted into the casing 102, so that the bread isdrawn out of and inserted into the casing 102.

Hereinafter, described will be the constructions of the toaster door 130and the tray 120, with reference to FIGS. 5 to 7. As shown, a pair ofcooperating levers 122 are connected to middle portions of both sides ofthe toaster door 130, which pivots downward and upward about the hingeshaft Ha when it is opened and closed. Rear ends of the cooperatinglevers 122 are connected to both sides of the tray 120. In the presentembodiment as shown, it is noticed that the cooperating levers 122 arebent with a predetermined angle. The cooperating levers 122 arepivotally connected to each of the toaster door 130 and the tray 120.

Therefore, when the toaster door 130 is opened, that is, when the stateof the microwave oven is changed from that shown in FIG. 5 to that shownin FIG. 6, the cooperating levers 122 connected to the toaster door 130are drawn forward beyond the hinge shaft Ha. Therefore, bread B put onthe tray 120 is also drawn forward, so that the microwave oven comesinto the state shown in FIG. 6.

In addition, to the rear end of each of the cooperating levers 122 isconnected a spring S whose rear end is fixed to the rear surface of thecasing 102. In result, when the toaster door 130 is opened, the springsS are elongated to have an elastic restoring force according to theforward movement of the cooperating levers 122. In contrast, when thetoaster door 130 is closed, the cooperating levers 122 are pulledbackward by the elastic restoring force of the springs S, so as to makethe tray 120 slide backward also to its original position.

As shown in FIG. 7, the casing 102 of the toaster section 100 includes acasing tube 102 a having a shape of a rectangular pipe, and a back plate102 b forming a rear end wall of the rectangular pipe. At both sidewalls of the casing 102 are formed guide slots 102 c respectivelyextending in the horizontal direction. Further, in the guide slots 102 care inserted sliding protuberances 120 a protruding laterally outwardfrom both sides of a bottom portion of the tray 120. Consequently, whenthe tray 120 moves forward and backward according to the opening and theclosing of the toaster door 130, the sliding protuberances 120 a slidein the horizontal direction while being guided along the guide slots 102c. Therefore, the tray 120 can be moved forward and backward in a morestable state.

As shown in FIGS. 5 to 7, a flour collector 132 is disposed under thecasing 102, in which slices of bread B are put and baked. The flourcollector 132 is arranged in order to collect flour, which is producedwhile the slices of bread B are baked in, put in, and drawn out of thecasing 102. The flour collector 132 has a shape of a drawer, which ishorizontally inserted into and drawn out of the lowest portion of thecasing 102.

Hereinafter, with reference to FIG. 8, described will be a heater 140installed in the casing 102 of the toaster section 100. The heater 140is a component for generating heat to bake the slices of bread B. Theheater 140 includes a core plate 142, on which wound are heat wires 144generating heat when electricity is applied to the heat wires 144, andouter plates 145 and 146 so disposed as to surround both side surfacesof the core plate 142. The outer plates 145 and 146 attached to bothsides of the core plate 142 are made from a material having a resistanceto heat, such as asbestos. The outer plates 145 and 146 are arranged inorder to prevent the slices of bread from being in direct contact withthe core plate 142 and enable the heat generated from the heat wires 144to be uniformly transferred to the entire surface of the bread.

Moreover, a plurality of guides 148 are disposed at outer portions ofthe heater 140 having the outer plates 145 and 146 and the core plate142. The guides 148 are so arranged as to fix the surface of the outerplates and to maintain the heater 140 in a location spaced with apredetermined distance from the heated bread. As shown in FIG. 7, threeheaters 140, each of which has the construction as described above, aredisposed in the casing 102. It goes without saying that such anarrangement of the three heaters 140 as shown are arranged with anintention to heat both side surfaces of each of two slices of bread,which are inserted respectively through the pair of the input ports 104.Consequently, according to the above arrangement of the three heaters140, inside of the input ports 104 are defined a pair of heatingchambers, in each of which a slice of bread is inserted and heated.

Hereinafter, described will be the operation of the microwave ovenhaving the above-described construction according to the presentinvention.

In a state where the toaster door 130 is closed as shown in FIG. 2, whena user wants to bake slices of bread, the user has to open the toasterdoor 130 at first. When a grip 134 formed on an outer surface of thetoaster door 130 is pulled, the toaster door 130 is pivoted downwardabout the hinge shaft Ha into an open state as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4.

As the toaster door 130 is opened, the tray 120 disposed in the casing102 is correspondingly drawn forward out of the casing 102, owing to theconstruction that the rear ends of the cooperating levers 122 areconnected with the sliding protuberances 120 a of the tray 120 asdescribed above. Further, the tray 120 is drawn forward out of thecasing 102 in the horizontal direction while the sliding protuberances120 a of the tray 120 are guided along the guide slots 102 c formed atboth side surfaces of the casing 102.

In the state where the tray 120 has been drawn forward out of the casing102, slices of bread to be baked are inserted through the input ports104 to be put on the tray 120, and then the toaster door 130 is closedagain. When the toaster door 130 is closed, the cooperating levers 122are restored to their original positions by the elastic restoring forceof the springs S, so that the tray 120 is also returned into the casing102.

In this state, when a button 115 for the toaster function, which isdisposed on the control panel 114, is pressed, heating is initiated bythe heaters 140 in the casing 102. During the heating operation by theheater, a predetermined gap is maintained between the heater and theslices of bread, and the entire surfaces of the slices of bread areuniformly heated. When the slices of bread has been completely bakedafter a predetermined time, the toaster door 130 can be opened, so thatthe baked slices of bread can be picked up from the drawn tray 120.Then, completed is a labor of making toast.

In a microwave oven according to the present invention as describedabove, it is noticed that a toaster section, which is opened and closedby a toaster door, is disposed at a portion in front of an instrumentcompartment.

According to the present invention as described above, there is provideda convenience of use, which enables a user to bake slices of bread evenwith a microwave oven. Therefore, the present invention provides anadvantage of enlarging the utility of a microwave oven, since amicrowave oven according to the present invention not only can perform aheating function by means of microwave but also can bake slices of breadmost preferably by means of heaters.

Further, in a microwave oven according to the present invention, it isnoticed that a toaster section for baking bread is disposed in front ofan instrument compartment. Therefore, the instrument compartment havinga relatively abundant space is utilized in arranging the toastersection, so that the toaster section can be installed without reducingan interior space of a heating chamber and without increasing the entiredimension of the microwave oven. Furthermore, there is provided anadditional advantage in the construction thereof, in that the electricpower required by the toaster section can be easily supplied from theinstrument compartment.

Although a preferred embodiment of the present invention has beendescribed for illustrative purposes, those skilled in the art willappreciate that various modifications, additions and substitutions arepossible, without departing from the scope and spirit of the inventionas disclosed in the accompanying claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A microwave oven having a toaster, the microwaveoven comprising: a heating chamber, in which food is heated; aninstrument compartment disposed at one side of the heating chamber, theinstrument compartment containing electric components for generatingmicrowaves supplied to the heating chamber; a toaster casing disposed infront of the instrument compartment, the toaster having input portsformed at a front surface of the toaster; and a toaster section disposedin the toaster casing, the toaster section having at least a heater forheating bread.
 2. A microwave oven having a toaster as claimed in claim1, the microwave oven further comprising a toaster door for opening andclosing the toaster casing.
 3. A microwave oven having a toaster asclaimed in claim 2, wherein the toaster door is disposed in such amanner that the toaster door can be opened and closed while pivotingdownward and upward about a hinge shaft disposed at a lower end of thetoaster door.
 4. A microwave oven having a toaster as claimed in claim3, the microwave oven further comprising: a tray for seating breadthereon, the tray being disposed at an inner bottom portion of thetoaster casing; and at least a cooperating lever for connecting the traywith a middle portion of a side of the toaster door, so that the tray isdrawn forward by an opening operation of the toaster door.
 5. Amicrowave oven having a toaster as claimed in claim 4, wherein thecooperating lever has a rear end connected to a spring, which is fixedto a rear wall of the toaster casing, so that the cooperating lever iselastically supported backward.
 6. A microwave oven having a toaster asclaimed in claim 4, wherein the tray comprises sliding protuberancesprotruding laterally outward from both sides of the tray, the slidingprotuberances being inserted in guide slots formed at side surfaces ofthe toaster casing, so as to guide forward and backward movements of thetray.
 7. A microwave oven having a toaster as claimed in claim 1, themicrowave oven further comprising a flour collector disposed at a lowestportion of the casing, the flour collector having a shape of a drawer,which is horizontally inserted into and drawn out of the toaster casing.8. A microwave oven having a toaster as claimed in claim 1, wherein thetoaster casing has a front plate disposed at a front portion of thetoaster casing, the front plate having a pair of input ports formedthrough the front plate.
 9. A microwave oven having a toaster as claimedin claim 1, wherein the heater disposed in the toaster casing comprisesa core plate, on which heat wires are wound, and outer plates, which aredisposed as to surround both side surfaces of the core plate.
 10. Amicrowave oven having a toaster as claimed in claim 9, wherein theheater further comprises a plurality of guides disposed at outerportions of the heater, the guides being arranged in such a manner as tomaintain the heater in a location spaced with a predetermined distancefrom the bread.
 11. A microwave oven having a toaster as claimed inclaim 10, wherein the microwave oven comprises three heaters disposed inthe toaster casing, the three heaters being spaced apart with intervalsin a transverse direction of the toaster casing.